Title page for ETD etd-12222008-150818

Kinetic Simulations of Spacecraft Charging and Plasma Interactions in the Solar Wind

Degree

PhD

Department

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name

Title

Wang, Joseph J.

Committee Chair

Roy, Christopher J.

Committee Member

Sandu, Adrian

Committee Member

Scales, Wayne A.

Committee Member

Tafti, Danesh K.

Committee Member

Keywords

Plasma flow

Sheath

Particle-In-Cell

Charging

Date of Defense

2008-09-01

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

Analytical and numerical studies are carried out to investigate spacecraft charging and plasma interactions in the solar wind. The physics of spacecraft charging in solar wind is determined by the mesothermal flow and the photoelectron sheath. In order to properly resolve both plasma flow and the photoelectron sheath, a 3-D full particle PIC model is applied. In this model, all plasma species (ambient ions and electrons, and photoelectrons) are modeled as macro-particles so the detailed dynamics of each species can be resolved around a charged spacecraft. In order to correctly resolve the mesothermal velocity ratio, PIC simulations are carried out using the real ion to electron mass ratio. A charging model based on the capacitance matrix method is integrated into the PIC model so the floating potential can be calculated self-consistently with the PIC code from charges deposited on the surface.

We first investigate the photoelectron sheath in the solar wind. Previous analytical studies of monotonic and non-monotonic sheath profiles in stationary electrons have suggested that there can exist two solutions of the sheath profiles when photoelectron emissions are significant. We extend the previous analytical approach to include the effects of drifting electrons. Full particle PIC simulations suggest that the non-monotonic sheath profile is the stable solution under solar wind conditions. We found that the current balance calculation is not an accurate method to predict the floating potential when photoelectron emissions are significant.

We next apply the simulation model to study spacecraft charging under various solar wind conditions. Due to photoelectron emissions, spacecraft charging is typically not a serious problem. The floating potential is ~2.5V under the mean solar wind condition. We also investigate the plasma interactions of a multi-body system consisting of a large platform and a small free flyer in the absence of photoelectron emissions where we set a free flyer at 2*Debye length behind the platform in the wake. For the particular system studied in this dissertation, the simulation shows that wake charging is not severe under both the mean solar wind condition and severe magnetosheath charging condition.